Adam Sherman

Developer Position Open at Versature

adam — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:11:03 +0000

We’re hiring again at Versature, take a look:

Developer Position Open

It’s a software developer position that gets you working directly with me. Make sure to spread the word!

Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies | The Onion

adam — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:15:17 +0000

This is beautiful–The Onion has managed to embed such a compliment to Steve Jobs in a satirical piece:

Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies

Well done.

xkcd: Password Strength

adam — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:43:55 +0000

As always, xkcd makes a great point through a comic with “Password Strength”.

Password Strength

I do not know if the point he is making is actually valid, some research will be required.

Update: Ben Rockwood comments on the webcomic with “Password Myths”.

I believe that Mr. Rockwood is correct in his appraisal that we should all start using the term pass phrase.

NullPosts: suds and appengine

adam — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:01:32 +0000

I ran into the issue described in NullPosts: suds and appengine today. This is caused by the great Python SOAP API, suds, and Google App Engine not playing together to do some of the restrictions in GAE. Thanks NullPosts!

Google App Engine’s Python Exception Syntax

adam — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:39:46 +0000

Remember, Python 2.5 has this exception syntax:

try:
    raise FooException("Darn!")
except FooException, e
    print("Error: %s" % e)

The newer syntax is:

try:
    raise FooException("Darn!")
except FooException as e
    print("Error: %s" % e)

I ran into this when uploading an application to Google App Engine, which then produced this cryptic error:

: invalid syntax (main.py, line 64)

Where line 64 is the line containing the not-yet-implemented as keyword.

Get sources and Javadocs

adam — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:12:46 +0000

How to tell Maven to download all Javadoc for your project’s dependencies:

mvn dependency:resolve -Dclassifier=javadoc

via Maven Micro-Tip: Get sources and Javadocs | Ted Wise.

Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” Seems to Have a Broken Python easy_install

adam — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:11:36 +0000

One of the first things I needed after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) was to make some Python scripts work. However easy_install seemed to be broken:

$ easy_install psycopg2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/easy_install", line 5, in 
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 2607, in 
    parse_requirements(requires), Environment()
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 565, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req)  # XXX put more info here
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: setuptools==0.6c12dev-r88795

I fixed this by installing Distribute and then the new Mac OS X Developer Tools.

RSA finally comes clean: SecurID is compromised

adam — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:53:00 +0000

Wow. This is a massive deal and a huge hurdle for RSA:

RSA finally comes clean: SecurID is compromised

Apple Posted an iOS 5 Video

adam — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:46:15 +0000

Check it out to start drooling this fall’s release:

Apple – iOS 5 – See the top new features in action

Rands In Repose: Lost in Translation

adam — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:52:53 +0000

As always, Rands has something interesting to say about becoming a manager for the first time:

Your confidence is going to be artificially high. This new job, hobby, or sport is going to appear magically easy. You’re going to feel gifted. Those watching your miraculous aptitude keep saying, “beginner’s luck”, but that’s neither what you’re hearing nor what they’re saying. What you’re hearing them say is, “We are jealous that you are gifted at this thing you totally don’t understand”, but what they’re actually saying is, “We understand it’s intoxicating to instantly feel like an expert and we will most certainly bite our tongues when you painfully discover how much you have to learn.”

via Rands In Repose: Lost in Translation.